With vintage planes, foundation gets veterans back in the sky

Navy veteran, Bob Conboy, 81, salutes spectators after the 1940 Boeing Stearman makes it safely back to the base after a short tour of northern Orange County. "It made me feel 40 years younger!" said Conboy, of his flight experience. The former pilot even took over the controls for a few minutes during the flight, said Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation president, Darryl Fisher.MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Wings, Wheels, Rotors & Expo

When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: 11200 Lexington Drive, Los Alamitos

Cost: Parking and admission are free

Flying: Children 8 to 17 years old can take a free ride in an airplane with the Experimental Aircraft Association Young Eagles program. Anyone else can pay about $40-$60 to ride in a helicopter. Call 310-355-1959 to buy tickets before the event. There will be other planes to explore on the ground and likely a couple of flyovers.

Cars: Organizers are accepting applications for roadsters and hot rods right up until the show begins. The base commander, mayor of Los Alamitos and others will give out awards to their favorite cars.

Somewhere over the coast near Seal Beach on Friday’s balmy afternoon, Mike Trerotola took control of a 1940 Boeing biplane at 90 years of age.

Treretola hadn’t flown an open-air plane like the striking blue-and-yellow 1940 Boeing Stearman in 70 years since he was training to pilot the Corsairs and Hellcats he’d fly toward the end of World War II and for 18 years as a reservist out of the airfield at Los Alamitos.

“The wind in your face, the wind in your hair. Yeah, I hadn’t had that since I was flying Stearmans in Olathe, Kan.,” Treretola said, wearing bifocals over his aviators on the tarmac at Los Alamitos on Friday.

His return to the skies was made possible by the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation, a nonprofit which gives back to veterans by taking them on free flights.

The two-year-old foundation, which pilot Darryl Fisher founded and runs as its president, has been on tour of the West Coast this year and will end the year in Arizona and the Imperial Valley in November.

Fisher sat behind Treretola, taking off and landing the two-seat plane. This was one of nine veteran flights Fisher made on Friday with eight more scheduled Saturday.

But this one was special. Fisher said he doesn’t often get to take old fighter pilots up.

He said Treratola hadn’t lost his touch.

“The only way I can describe it is I was in the presence of greatness,” Fisher said, earnestly. “As I was watching him make his turns, it was a moment of joy.”

Fisher’s grandfather was a pilot in World War II who bought this airplane after the war ended, Fisher said. This Stearman, like many others, trained U.S. pilots for combat during the war. Four generations of Fishers have flown in the plane, which is now based in Carson City, Nev.

Fisher said it was the first time the Ageless Aviation foundation had flown out of an active military base. “It’s really kind of historic for the foundation,” he said.

According to the foundation’s website, grandfather William L. Fisher founded a senior healthcare facility in Oregon in 1965. Darryl Fisher founded the nonprofit in 2011 after touring the country in a Stearman with his father and visiting other senior care facilities to give the residents rides.

Fisher’s plane, which will be on view at the Wings, Wheels, Rotors and Expo at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base on Sunday, is World War II-vintage like many of the vets that fly in it these days, though it didn’t see the combat they did.

Treratola, who sold his Gardena-based photo-processing lab in 2006, said he sponsored a Corsair to fly in for the air show as well.

He used to fly Corsairs over the same sky he was flying Friday, recalling one exercise where 80 planes practiced a ground attack by strafing the Los Alamitos airfield – then under Navy control – from all angles.

It was a return to old habits for others as well, like Harry Strohmyer, a retired Navy captain who took care of pilots’ teeth on base.

He wasn’t nervous about heading up in an old biplane because the pilots used to show their appreciation for his dental care by taking him for a spin in F-4s and F-16s, which can reach top speeds of over 1,000 mph.

“We’re going on a little trip,” one of the pilots would say to Strohmyer. “We’re gonna go see Catalina, then we’re going to catch the Grand Canyon.”

That last part meant rolling the plane over and diving into the Canyon, Strohmyer said. They’d be back before the afternoon was over.

Related Links

Navy veteran, Bob Conboy, 81, salutes spectators after the 1940 Boeing Stearman makes it safely back to the base after a short tour of northern Orange County. "It made me feel 40 years younger!" said Conboy, of his flight experience. The former pilot even took over the controls for a few minutes during the flight, said Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation president, Darryl Fisher. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Pilot, Darryl Fisher, brings Navy veteran Al Hayes safely back to the Joint Forces Training Base after a short flight over Orange County, courtesy of the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Korean War veteran Al Hayes is greeted by his friend Lucille Fitch after his ride in a 1940 Boeing Steerman at Los Alamitos on Friday morning. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Navy veteran Bob Conboy smiles when he sees the 1940 Boeing Stearman that he will be riding in for the first time. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Former Navy pilot, Bob Conboy, 81, of Westminster, prepares for his ride in a 1940 Boeing Stearman courtesy of the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Pilot Darryl Fisher gives Navy veteran Al Hayes an overview of the flight plan before they take off on Friday morning at Los Alamitos. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Navy veteran Bob Conboy (left) and pilot Darryl Fisher prepare to take to the gray skies over Los Alamitos on Friday morning. Fisher's organization, the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation, has given rides to more than 200 veterans across the country this year. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Navy veteran, Al Hayes, 82, who served during the Korean War, gets bucked into a 1940 Boeing Stearman in preparation for a short flight over northern Orange County. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Elena Conboy, Lucille Fitch, and air field safety officer, JD Brown listen as Bob Conboy, center, shares stories from his time as a Navy pilot. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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